Survival Cooking Part I

So, serveries at Rice have been closed for almost 4 days now. This has provided the freedom to explore frontiers of food never before encountered by man. Not even kidding.

The first item on the list was DATREX multi-purpose emergency rations.

Each pack contains 72 hours worth of food, broken up into 18 individually wrapped bars of a questionable brown substance (flour, shortening, sugar, water, coconut, and salt, to be precise). These are designed to provide enough calories and nutrition to survive in low water environments (they have much less sodium than MREs or canned food). So great items to put on all your life rafts! They also remain safe to eat for at least 5 years. So, one giant case of these could survive long enough to feed you all through college!

When you crack open this vacuum sealed package, the smell of coconut will immediately begin to permeate the room. I advise storing DATREX in a ziplock bag after opening, unless you're really, really fond of smelling coconut, and nothing else, in your room.

After opening one of these beauties, you can bite into 200 calories worth of nondescript beige. The taste itself is relatively pleasant. It has the flavor and texture of a shortbread cookie, minus the Girl Scout touch. However, the aftertaste and general digestive sensation is not particularly enjoyable, and highly encourages eating DATREX in conjunction with another substance, to dilute it.

I personally would rather take my luck trying to catch sharks on a life raft rather than subsist on a diet of DATREX for 3 days. However, if you're just looking for a way to boost your caloric intake, I've discovered a few fun uses for it. It functions as a tasty ice cream mix-in, adding a nice crunchy texture, and effectively tripling the caloric value of a scoop of ice cream. A half-gallon of bluebell and DATREX could suddenly feed a small village. :) Other thoughts include using it as a pie crust, or else using it as a smoothie supplement.

Stay tuned for more cooking adventures with cactus and goat cheese, MREs, and more survival foods!